Lobster Claw Game at L.A. County Fair Decried by Animal Activists (With Too Much Free Time)

People are losing their homes, trying to find scarce jobs, and struggling to put food on the table right here in L.A.

But the real issue today is ... cruelty to lobsters.

Yeah, the spcaLA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is upset over a choose-your-own-lobster meal at the L.A. County Fair, which just opened over the holiday weekend:

In a statement the group announced that it wants the practice stopped:

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) condemns the "The Lobster Claw" game at the Los Angeles County Fair and urges the Los Angeles County Fair Association to remove the cruel game that encourages people to claw and trap their lobster before it is cooked.

Um. First of all. Yum? Second of all, choosing your own lobster is what happens at every other Chinese seafood restaurant ever.

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Still, maybe it's not appropriate for the kiddies. Guess the activists don't like the "claw" and the game aspect. Tastiness is not a game, apparently. spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein:

An exhibit like this conveys a message to adults and children alike that it is okay to torment food animals before they are eaten, and, in fact, that it is okay to torment animals for amusement and entertainment.

Okay. All we can think about is melted butter. And more jobs for America.

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.